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May 15, 2009

Houston Spiritual Leader Freed on Bail
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Back in the United States, the Houston-based spiritual leader Sheikh
Zoubir Bouchikhi has been released on bond after four months in a
private immigration jail. Imam Zoubir has lived in the US for the past
eleven years. He was jailed in December after US immigration rescinded
his green card approval and rejected his application for permanent
residency status as a religious minister. Immigration officials arrested
him at his home and led him away in handcuffs in front of his wife and
four children. I interviewed Imam Zoubir last month after he called in
from the private jail.

Sheikh Zoubir Bouchikhi: “I strongly believe that I am targeted because
of my political views, especially I was against the war in Iraq, against
bombing innocent civilians in Lebanon in 2006, and for my clear stance
that I am pro-democracy and values that this country was founded on. And
they don’t want for somebody who is free-minded and outspoken.”

Imam Zoubir’s release follows a grassroots campaign to pressure
immigration officials to set him free. He is out on a $20,000 bond.



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